Cell Phones for Seniors: What's New Including No-Contract Cell Phones
Can cell phones for seniors—and service—be standard no-contract offerings? We can dream. Recently I watched an elderly man at the Verizon store counter inquiring how he could save money on his cell phone bill based on his usage (he couldn't) and specifically what the contract cancellation terms were (big penalty fee). He departed with a deep sigh. It just wasn't pretty, as anyone who has analyzed the ever-renewing two-year contract experience that is a "feature" of upgrading to a new phone.
Today Jitterbug owns the no-contract cell phones for seniors market. Great Call's Jitterbug is a no-contract, easy-to-use cell phone for seniors. Buy just as many minutes as you will need—no more, no less. There is a bit of grousing here and there on the Internet about service issues, but the overall story remains senior-focused and friendly.
We need more players with no-contract cell phones. I was excited when I saw a TV ad for cell phones the other day that seemed to be targeting Jitterbug's core market: seniors. Check out Consumer Cellular and particularly the Nokia 6085h, both of which offer no-contract cell phone plans and phones that are particularly appropriate for seniors.
Tracfone and Hop-on.com offer no-contract cell phone plans as well, and Hop-on presumably offers a cell phone for seniors —the ChitterChatter HOP 1890—a GSM offering (although the overall Hop-On Web site looks like it was designed for twenty-somethings headed out for a night on the town). Warning: check out the customer service for both before committing to either one.
Maybe just skip the cell phone and head for the BlackBerry. Of course, boomers and seniors are becoming Internet and e-mail junkies (c'est moi, actually). My retired neighbors just traded in their cell phones for the BlackBerry Curve (yes, they were on Verizon, and yes, there are contracted data plans with BlackBerry). They seem very happy with the sound quality and the combination of useful functions available in a single device.
Here is an interesting mention of a Nokia N82 smart phone and Kurtzweil application for seniors who are suffering from vision loss—it's expensive, but it will read the text out loud. And there are free applications for BlackBerry; I noticed one that lights up the screen more effectively than the standard product.
Apps and more apps. BlackBerry just launched BlackBerry App World, competing with Apple's iPhone offerings. It should grow the library of apps that could be useful for seniors and people with disabilities by combining e-mail and phone and eliminating the need for any of the above. For you iPhone addicts (I can't comment on that) here's a review of the iPhone for boomers and seniors. But back to the iPhone: you can download music, TV shows, podcasts of nearly anything, and all things Apple at the Apple Online Store.
Minor digression: smart phones and tech annoyances. This just in from ZDNet: everyone seems to have a smart phone offering ready to take Apple and BlackBerry down. Check it out.
I really enjoyed this CIO.com article: 10 things I hate about tech by Thomas Wailgum. Smart phones ("You're not cool or special just because you can talk away on your pink BlackBerry Pearl") and Twitter ("NOBODY REALLY CARES WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW") were high points for me. Twitterers need to figure out what they want with the tool; a firm's profile may say "business," but the tweets—eh, not so much.
